Now You Can Connect Your Android Phone To PC With Windows 10 Preview Build

Highlights

Windows 10 Preview Build now available for PC

It allows linking of Android phones to PC with iOS compatibility coming soon.

Cortana’s voice command features improved

At the Microsoft’s Build conference, the company talked about coming up with a system that allows PCs and phones to work together. With its latest Build, 16521 “Fast Ring”, the users can now connect their Android phones to PCs. The feature is a follow-up to the company’s previous Apple Continuity like feature for Windows 10. In addition to this, Microsoft has also released Pick Up Where I Left Off that Microsoft apps will be supporting.

The all-new Build 16521 for PC is aimed towards cross-device web-browsing and the support for iPhone is expected to arrive soon. Windows 10 Insider Preview can be started from Settings > Phone and link your phone, after installing the new build on the PC. After you finish adding the Android phone to be linked, Microsoft will send an SMS to the user for directing a user to install the test app called Microsoft Apps for Android. With this app, the connection between the phone and PC will complete.

After linking, the user will be able to browse web on their phones. For viewing the content on PC, the user can click on “Continue on PC” option to invoke the native sharing experience. After invoking, it asks users to sign in with their official Microsoft account. Users need to use the same account they are using on their PC. After this, it will ask users to continue now or continue later.

If a user chooses the former option, the website will open on the linked PC. With the latter option, the website will show up under Action Center for users to get to later when they want. Apart from enabling the linking feature, the new build also improves the Cortana’s ability to show Web search results without opening the browser. Cortana works with movies, stock prices, celebrities, weather and flight statuses to name a few.

If Cortana fails to respond to a user query, the pane will not expand automatically. For some features a user need not touch the PC, as they are enabled through voice commands. For now, the Cortana can perform lock, sign-out, shutdown, or turn off the PC functions.